Our first almost-date (he was not picking up the clues I was throwing down) was a group ride in May 2012.

“There’s a meal and a free T-shirt,” read his Facebook message invitation.

I arrived with my sister’s fashionable leather jacket and work boots from a past job.

DM arrived with his Honda Shadow 750 and a red duffel bag.

The duffel bag was full of motorcycle clothes — the kind with armour plates at the knees and hips, elbows, shoulders and along the back.

Safety first — I donned the outfit he offered.

It was all his, so of course it was way too big. I spent the ride getting buffeted as the jacket and helmet caught the wind. The chill May breeze forced its way up my sleeves and out at my neck and I shivered for about 50 km while the group toured the shore.

I loved it. Every. Minute.

Turns out I loved him too — and that ride was the beginning of our big motorcycle trip called life.

Since that first ride, there have been new bikes, new friends and many miles.

Spring riding wear

One luxury I’m fortunate to own is heated gear. For DM, as a commuter, it’s more of a necessity, and he uses a heated jacket and grips. Heated gear plugs into a power source on the bike and warms up, like an electric blanket, when the bike is running.

DM went through various brands of jackets, vests and gloves before he found a reliable grip/jacket combo.

“Troublesome and inconsistent” were DM’s words, adding he’d never buy a vest again.

“Either get a jacket or why bother,” he said.

I’m a backseat driver with most things in our partnership, but for pretty much anything regarding the bike, I leave it to him.

Now we have the same jacket; mine arrived in the mail earlier this week.

I’m a real dork about the cold, so for my first ride of the year we usually aim for a sunny day with light winds and temperatures above 15 C. Sunday was none of those, but we were going anyway. I wanted to try my jacket.

For the inaugural 2019 outing, I started with long underwear and added sweatpants, a polar fleece, the heated jacket, my down jacket and my riding jacket and pants.

Good news, all. This new jacket is fantastic; I even took off the down layer! I felt more like a human and less like a teddy bear.

After a long winter, it felt great to finally hop up behind DM and set off. Like always, he gave all 1,800 ccs a good shot of gas. I held on tight, grinning, as we charged down the road together.